Hospitals, nursing homes, and other patient care facilities typically include patient monitoring devices and other patient care equipment at one or more bedsides in the facility. Patient monitoring devices, for example, generally include sensors, processing equipment, and displays for obtaining and analyzing a medical patient's physiological parameters. Physiological parameters include, for example, respiratory rate, blood gas levels, pulse, ECG, EEG, glucose and blood pressure, among others. Clinicians, including doctors, nurses, and certain other medical personnel use the physiological parameters obtained from the medical patient to diagnose illnesses and to prescribe treatments. Clinicians also use the physiological parameters to monitor a patient during various clinical situations to determine whether to increase the level of medical care given to the patient. Some patient care devices include proprietary software with proprietary indications that can only be used with their devices. Thus, often, multiple different redundant monitors may be required based on which software or indications a physician requires. Other patient care equipment can also used to assist in the care of the patient including medicine dispensing equipment, communication equipment, alarm signals and other devices.
Patient monitoring devices must be highly robust and able to tolerate component and device failures. Robustness is of particular importance where devices are used to monitor patient status in health care facilities. For example, if a component of a monitor fails, such as an alarm, the alarm conditions may go unnoticed. In some situations, if a patient monitoring device experiences a failure during operation, the failure may necessitate disabling the entire device.